Many gardeners love to grow flowers in containers on a deck, balcony or patio. It's a great way to have color, and a touch of summer, close at hand. But there are other places to use containers in your landscape.

 

Using containers in the garden to add color to a shady spot, to a “difficult to grow anything” spot under a tree or as an accent to other flowers and edibles is a simple way to add some pop to your landscape. With new, attractive containers made from durable polyurethane, it's easy to care for these pots as well. These containers look like a decorative clay or metal pot, but are light weight, easy to move, UV resistant and long lastings. Plus, the pots can be moved throughout the growing season, refreshed with new plants when needed and protected from heavy rains, hail and winds.

Let's look at three places to use these pots in the garden.

 

If you have a shady spot under a tree or a dark area in your yard, think about growing plants that have colorful foliage and flowers to brighten the location. Containers under a tree thrive without competition from plant roots in the soil. Coleus 'Rediculous'^® features deep, burgundy red leaves on a large, 2- to 3- foot tall plant. It's perfect as your thriller shade plant. Add some 'Sweet Caroline^™ Medusa' sweet potato vines with their contrasting chartreuse foliage, mounding habit and heat tolerance and some Licorise 'Splash' plants with their silver foliage, mounding habit and drought tolerance to make a colorful shade container without any blooms. Of course, if you want to mix and match flowering, shade loving annuals, such as begonias, impatiens and torenia, they will just add to the show.

 

In full sun your plant options increase in a container. Try unique annuals such as 'Prince Tut'^™ papyrus grass. It only reaches 2+ feet tall in a pot so doesn't distract attention from other plants in the garden. It's a fast grower and even looks nice along a pond's edge. For some color in that container, try angelonia. Angelface Wedgewood Blue is heat and drought tolerant and has a grape-scented foliage. Mix in other heat and drought tolerant flowers, such as Superbena^®'Raspberry', and you'll have a trailer with large, red flowers, too.